Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey : A Biography (A Book That Shook the World)

The Stories Of The Trojan War And Helen Of Troy, Patroclus And Achilles, The Sirens And The Cyclops Are Embedded In Western Culture, Yet Readers Often Fail To Recognise That They Were Made Famous By Two Epic Poems, The Iliad And The Odyssey, And One Blind Poet: Homer. Alberto Manguel Begins His Book With The Poems' Inception In Ancient Greece And Demonstrates How These Poems Have Reverberated Subsequently Through The Western Canon, From The Rome Of Virgil And Horace To Joyce's Dublin And Derek Walcott's Caribbean, Via Dante And Racine. In This Lyrical And Graceful Short Volume, Manguel Delights In The Original Poems And Celebrates Their Presence Throughout History. Cover 1 Author biography 2 Title page 6 Dedication and Copyright page 9 Contents 12 Acknowledgements 14 A Note on Translations and Editions 15 Introduction 17 1 Summaries of the Books 24 2 A Life of Homer? 38 3 Among the Philosophers 51 4 Virgil 58 5 Christian Homer 72 6 Other Homers 80 7 Homer in Islam 91 8 Dante 99 9 Homer in Hell 106 10 Greek versus Latin 116 11 Ancients versus Moderns 124 12 Homer as Poetry 136 13 Realms of Gold 148 14 Homer as Idea 161 15 The Eternal Feminine 170 16 Homer as Symbol 179 17 Homer as History 189 18 Madame Homer 195 19 Ulysses’ Travels 205 20 Homer Through the Looking-Glass 217 21 The Never-ending War 230 22 Everyman 241 Notes 250 Index 297 EBC,Converted The Iliad and The Odyssey are perhaps the most influential works in the history of western literature. This exquisite analysis of their creation and influence establishes how, precisely, these two poems, written nearly three thousand years ago, have come to resonate throughout the world. "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" are perhaps the some of the most influential works in the history of western literature. This book analyses their creation and influence and establishes how they have come to resonate throughout the world. This exquisite analysis of The Iliad and The Odyssey establishes how two poems, written nearly three thousand years ago, went on to become perhaps the most influential works in the history of western literature. Examines "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" from their origins, the colorful characters and events chronicling the Trojan War and its aftermath, and their legacy for Western culture